Giving Back to The Nelligans

This is Thomas Nelligan and his family.  Tom just graduated from High School but unlike most HS graduates, his plans are not about Senior Week or where to go on vacation or to save money for school books - his plans for the next year are to recover from a Bone Marrow Transplant. Thomas is currently down at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) receiving chemo treatments to prepare him for the transplant on the 30th.  Thomas was born with a condition called Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD). He has no immune system and cannot fight off bacterial or fungal infections.  CGD causes chronic inflammation of tissues and in Thomas' case it has affected his intestinal wall causing inflammatory bowel disease. Thomas has endured stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting his whole life and it has affected his ability to receive the needed nutrition for a growing teenaged boy.  CGD can cause inflammation in other organs of the body as well and so when Tom gets sick it more often than not leads to a hospital stay and frequently some kind of surgery. A bone marrow transplant is the only way to stop the progression of this disease.
You know the Nelligans, or a family like them...they have been involved members of the community for 10+ years.  Tom, Dave, Kim and Lil have all been involved in the community athletic programs coaching, officiating, administrating, or manning the snack bar for all of those 10+ years.  Dave and Tom have coached multiple soccer teams during a single season because if they didn’t, there would have been kids who wanted to play but no one to coach them. Dave was an active scout leader all the way up until Thomas achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.  Lil coached softball and manned or managed the snack bar countless times.  As for the playing fields - Dave was looking out for those as well, mowing and lining.  
Dave has taken a 6 week, unpaid FMLA leave so he can be with Tom every day at CHOP.  This will be a financial hit to the family, not to mention the bills that will follow.
Thomas takes ten different kinds of medicine everyday and more than half of his medications are either not covered or only partially covered by the insurance.  
$10,000 might be a drop in the bucket to help replace the missed income, hospital bills, medicine and additional home nursing care that might be needed.  I am hoping that we can all spread the word and exceed the goal to be sure that the Nelligans can continue to be active members of our community.
They need our support now, it’s our turn to give back to the people that are the backbone of our community.